Sunday, December 30, 2012

Wolf declared a game species

Hunting season may be established

December 30, 2012

John Pepin - Journal Staff Writer
,
The Mining Journal

MARQUETTE - Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill late Friday
reclassifying gray wolves as a game species and authorizing the Michigan
Natural Resources Commission to establish a hunting season for the once
endangered species in Michigan.

"Wolves have made a dramatic
recovery in Michigan with a current population around 700 animals, with
almost all of that population residing in the central and western Upper
Peninsula," said state Sen. Tom Casperson, who introduced the Senate
bill Snyder signed. "Wolves need to be managed along with other species,
and management strategies should include the option of a game season."

The
NRC, the seven-member appointed rulemaking body for the Michigan
Department of Natural Resources, is now able to issue orders
establishing wolf hunting seasons in the state. The NRC would also
dictate methods of take, bag limits and other provisions of wolf hunting
or trapping seasons.

A wolf stands in the snow near Ishpeming in this file photo from the
Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill
late Friday making the gray wolf a game species in Michigan, paving the
way for a hunting season. (AP photo)

"The Department of Natural Resources now agrees that a game season is
needed as part of the approach to manage wolves," Casperson said. "As
season parameters are developed with the potential for a hunt in the
fall of 2013, I will help ensure that U.P. residents who actually live
where the wolves are at are included and heard."

The Humane Society of the United States was disappointed with Snyder's signing of the legislation.

"Wolves
have been on the protected list in Michigan for nearly 50 years. With
fewer than 700 wolves in Michigan, it's not right to spend decades
bringing the wolf back from the brink of extinction only to turn around
and allow them to be killed for sport," said Jill Fritz, Michigan state
director for the HSUS.

Great Lakes region gray wolves were
removed from the federal Endangered and Threatened Species list in
January, with management returned to the states of Michigan, Minnesota
and Wisconsin. Hunting seasons have already been established in
Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Fritz said it is already legal in
Michigan to kill wolves that threaten livestock or dogs, making a trophy
hunting season unnecessary.

"People don't eat wolves, and they
would be killed just for fun and trophies," Fritz said. "Sport hunting
of these rare creatures is unnecessary, especially when the wolf
population is just starting to recover."

In 2008, the Michigan
Legislature approved laws that took effect earlier this year with
delisting. Those laws allow livestock or dog owners, or their designated
agents, to remove, capture or, if deemed necessary, use lethal means to
destroy a wolf that is "in the act of preying upon" (attempting to kill
or injure) the owner's livestock or dogs.

Illegally killing a
wolf is punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine, along
with reimbursing the state for the cost of prosecution.

"With
wolf numbers far-exceeding population goals, I hear growing concerns of
the impacts they are having on people's lives and businesses," Casperson
said. "Residents across the Upper Peninsula have repeatedly asked for a
game season to help control the wolf population, reduce livestock and
pet depredation and enhance public safety."

In addition to the
hunting bill, Casperson also sponsored Senate Bill 996 (PA 487 of 2012),
which builds upon those provisions in current law to ensure livestock
owners receive fair and timely compensation for animals killed by
wolves, coyotes or cougars.

Casperson said that in recent years,
farmers have expressed frustration with the growing number of livestock
they lose to wolves and the delay in compensation received from the
state.

Under the new law, the Michigan Department of Agriculture
and Rural Development will reimburse claimants 100 percent of the fair
market value of livestock, not to exceed $4,000 per animal or $100,000
per incident. If the department does not make payment to the livestock
owner within 45 days of the claim, the recipient is entitled to twice
the amount of the original claim.

The HSUS and The Fund for
Animals have said they will file suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service to restore federal protections for Great Lakes wolves under the
Endangered Species Act.

The film offers an abbreviated history of the relationship between wolves and people—told from the wolf’s perspective—from a time when they coexisted to an era in which people began to fear and exterminate the wolves.

The return of wolves to the northern Rocky Mountains has been called one of America’s greatest conservation stories. But wolves are facing new attacks by members of Congress who are gunning to remove Endangered Species Act protections before the species has recovered.

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Inescapably, the realization was being borne in upon my preconditioned mind that the centuries-old and universally accepted human concept of wolf character was a palpable lie... From this hour onward, I would go open-minded into the lupine world and learn to see and know the wolves, not for what they were supposed to be, but for what they actually were.

-Farley Mowat, Never Cry Wolf

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“If you look into the eyes of a wild wolf, there is something there more powerful than many humans can accept.” – Suzanne Stone